Some random thoughts on marketing and advertising.

I went to a sales seminar recently, in conjunction with one of the jobs that I have. it wasn't a bad seminar, but it wasn't great one either. It got me thinking that I could probably do just as good a job. So I'm putting my money where my mouth is.

Here is my thesis:  Everything in life is advertising or marking. Let me tell you what I mean.

From the very first time a pre-teen or teenager discovers that they get more attention from the opposite sex by looking pretty or muscular, or batting their eyes at the right time, or being on the football team, they become an expert marketeer. Later in life it will become virtue signaling when, at a job or a bar or in graduate school or at an interview wherever, they will discover the day can attract potential mates and or friends or an employer, simply by espousing the right causes, the right beliefs or the right motives.

Whether it be a Super Bowl ad or a job interview almost every thing in life is marking. Wether  you're marketing to an audience of millions on the Internet or on a TV broadcast, or to the person eating dinner across from you at the table, it's just marketing. And what is marketing? It's trying to inform someone else to buy or do something if you want them to. When you're looking for a potential mate, you're marketing yourself. When you're trying to get a new job and you really want, first thing you have to do is market yourself to the potential new employer.

How successful you are in marketing yourself, your ideas, beliefs or opinions will greatly determine how successful you are in the game of life.

So how much time does the average human spend marketing? When you consider all the time spent in a gym, trying to improve your body. Or in school trying to improve your mind, or working hard at a job , and trying to improve your chances for a promotion, we spend a lot of time doing.

I don't think it would be a stretch to say that we spend almost every waking moment of our lives either actively or passively engaged in marketing of one form or another. So you might as well do it right, don't you think?

You begin marketing is Kid. Remember when you would try and influence your parents into going somewhere or letting you do something? Like going to see a movie, or to the 7-Eleven to get a Slurpee, or going to Disneyland on your summer vacation? You were engaged in marketing your idea or your belief to your parents. Your parents are easy. You learned what worked and what didn't work because got you almost immediate feedback. That's very important, feedback that is.

So how do you do a better job of marketing? (Especially if you get into a career where you are a salesperson?) Well it begins by, not surprisingly, how you begin. The most successful marketers will tell you then the best way to begin is by putting your shelf into the shoes of the person you are trying to sell to. Try and think about their beliefs, their opinions, their well-being. And what they might want to gain out of the particular situation that you're presenting. When you're a kid, it's called buttering up your parents. And we've all done it, most of us even into adulthood when dealing with friends siblings or spouses. It sounds corny but it's true.

Another important thing to do is to lay out the situation in such a way that it's easier for the person your marketing to is say yes, then it is to say no. When it be a financial decision, if you present your facts and your reasoning in the proper way, it becomes an easy way for them to say yes.

Another thing that's important to do is to be tenacious. Don't give up after the first no. You have no way of knowing if a person your marketing to is dead set against this or if they're riding the fence and they're just saying no to see what you will do, or to see how you will answer their objection. Answer the objection in the proper way and you have a much better chance of changing that no to a yes.

And don't, whatever you do, lower the price of what you're selling at the first sign of resistance. I hate it when a salesman does that to me.   I know then that they weren't being honest with me about the price at the beginning. So how do I know they're being straight with me about the price now? For that matter, how do I know anything they've said is the truth? So don't fall into the Trap of reducing price. Try other ways of instilling a sense of urgency in the buyer.

So be tenacious. Don't take that first no for a final answer. Say something like, "Okay, I understand your objections. And I'm glad you brought that one up, because I just thought of a different idea that might make this better for both of us."

Obviously different situations are going to call for different terms in different ways of presenting how you deal with their initial objection. But keep talking, and keep them talking, try and keep them engaged. The worst thing they can do is either throw you out of their office or walk out of yours.

Now you have to remember that spending $70,000 on a sports car has a whole different set of objections than whether or not to say yes to getting engaged tonight, or what movie do you want to see? Feedback, and how you analyze it and react to it, is paramount in importance.  Watch how they state their objection(s), whether it's heartfelt and  emotional, or dry, logical and numbers based. You'll have to think on the fly, and be quick about it, to respond properly.

Some people are hard to read, and sometimes you won't be able to tell exactly what's behind their objections. But use your intuition to deal with that. You're going to have to figure out how to deal with that initial objection. But I'm telling you that how you deal with the initial rejection and what you come up with as a second proposal or counter proposal is the most important part of the negotiation process.

Practice, and get good at it. That's all for now, good luck everybody. Will get back to casino talk next time